The use of viewing areas (e.g., windows) to display information in graphical user interfaces has become pervasive. Users often need to navigate through multiple viewing areas to search for information in volumes of data. In some applications, a user may find certain content and then need to navigate through additional viewing areas to search for related information. A user may need to perform these tasks in many different applications, such as a web browser (e.g., Safari from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.) or a digital content (e.g., videos and music) management application (e.g., iTunes from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.).
But existing methods for navigating through multiple viewing areas are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, using a conventional web browser to navigate through multiple viewing areas is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. In particular, it is well known that people have limited short-term memory and working memory (e.g., see M. Daneman and P. Carpenter, “Individual differences in working memory and reading” Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 19(4): 450-66 (1980); G. A. Miller, “The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information”, Psychological Review, 63, 81-97 (1956)). Because of this limited memory capacity, users can easily lose track of where they are in the course of a search or where they started the search while navigating through multiple views. This problem can reduce user efficiency and productivity.
In addition, existing methods for navigating through multiple viewing areas take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.